Elsa , very similar looking . The black-backed jackal has , slightly more pointy ears , does not have the white stripe on the sides but a more distinct black stripe - this was in the rain , the animal quite wet , and the white stripe less obvious . Interesting , the tail on this one does not have the white tip , but a BB's tail is lighter brown and darkens towards a black tip .

Tread softly , and let your departure not be spoiled by the damage of your arrival

Ja I think it is a side striped jackal - we have only seen them 3 times in Kruger - twice near Pretoriuskop in early morning (managed to get pics of both sightings but they were very skittish and ran off within 10 seconds of seeing them) and then on a night drive just outside Satara. Definitely one of my animals on my wish list to get a decent pic of!!

I agree with you Johan , and I mentioned the lack of the white tip . However , a BB have a distinct BLACK stripe down its side , which this one lacks too . Look at a typical BB jackal here , seen at Kloppersfontein :

Tread softly , and let your departure not be spoiled by the damage of your arrival

Johan Viljoen wrote:Okie I also think that mother jackal is a BB Jackal if I look at the tip of the tail. The tip of the tail on a SSJ is white, while the tip of the BBJ tail is black. That is the reason for the Afrikaans name of Witwasjakkals.

Okie, unfortunately I have to agree with Johan Viljoen and Elsa that you photographed a Black-backed Jackal. I took the photo below of a wet BBJ in Kgalagadi a couple of years ago where there is no chance of getting a SSJ. When wet, the black stripe you mentioned sort of disappears below the grey hair from higher up in the sides. As Johan noted the Side-striped Jackal will always have a white tip to its tail.

Clicking on the image will open the original hi-res image.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.Albert Einstein

I participate because I care - CUSTOS NATURAENo to Hotels in and commercialization of our National Parks.No to Legalized Rhino and Lion trade.Done 159 visits to National Parks.What a wonderful privilege.

Definitely not the best of pics, light was terrible, but then again I have always struggled to get a half decent pic of a Side Striped Jackal, spotted this one on a very cloudy gloomy day, in fact there were 2 of them, not far from Skukuza on the S21.

I hope someone can help me to identify this Jackal. We saw him on the H1-2 just north of the H12 turn-off. He looked to be larger than a black backed jackal but was very light in colour and I believe the side striped jackal is quite dark. I know the pictures is not the best.

PietSkiet, i tend to agree with Tom124 on this one. If you look carefully at ears of the Side-striped Jackal, on a bigger pic, it resemble the one in your Pic.

"Lose yourself in Nature and find Peace!"(Ralph Waldo Emerson)UNITE AGAINST POACHING...What we protect, do not let poachers take it away!Extinction is forever and survival is up to---every last one of us!

Until 2011 I didn't know any other than the Black-backed jackal in the Kruger. However late in the afternoon in early December, we had just turned off the tarred road heading north onto the S144 (Tropic af Capricorn loop) when a jackal type animal ran across the road. It obviously wasn't a Black-backed jackal and we thought it was possibly a domestic dog which had somehow entered the park. Talking with other people we came to the conclusion it must have been a Side-striped jackal. It moved so quickly I wasn't able to get a photograph. Reading the forum I noted that they been seen in that area so thought it was just a lucky sighting.

In early December last we were at Timbavati picnic area talking with some people who said that they had just seen a Side-striped jackal on their way down from Balule, so I told them they were very lucky to see one. We left and headed back to Satara and just before we reached the camp what I believe was a Side-striped jackal ran across the road in front of us, but again I was unable to take a photograph, so can't be certain.

Later we were staying at Berg-en-Dal and had just left the camp on our last day in the park and were feeling a bit miserable. We were heading towards the main road when a jackal ran across the road just before the turning to Malelane camp. I thought that it was a Side-striped, but wasn't certain, however this time I did manage to take a couple of photographs of the animal although it was about 5:30 and still fairly dark - hence the poor quality of the images. On our return home I checked with the forum and realised that the key ID pointer was the colour of the tip of the tail and how pleased I was when checking my photographs that it was indeed WHITE.

Perhaps they are more widespread than I thought, but just difficult to see and photograph.

Always nice to see the SSJ, Bond. The white tip to the tail is indeed a diagnostic ID-factor, but sometimes the tail tip gets grubby, making things a little more tricky. However, the faces are very different as well - the SSJ has a broader, more wolf-like visage, while the BBJ's face is fox-like. The stripe down the side is not always obvious and I have seen BBJs with confusing side-stripe-like markings. Your pic is indeed of a SSJ. They are certainly around and I have seen them more often in recent years; however, they are certainly more furtive than their black-backed cousins, and tend to run soon after spotting one, making photography more difficult.

I saw this on the night drive when we were returning to Olifants at Easter, we were less than 10 minutes form the gate and judging by the white tip on the tail I think it might be a SSJ. My camera isn't very good at nights pictures sorry but this was just about the only one that came out ok.